Local Ice Hockey Goes International

The 'College Sports Notebook' is published each Friday. Please send items of interest—including local athletes competing at out-of-town colleges—to marcmaturo@aol.com.

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It’s another showcase event for Josephine Pucci of Pearl River.

Pucci, a junior defender on the Harvard University women’s ice hockey team, was named for the fourth time to the U.S. Women’s National Team roster for the upcoming Four Nations Cup, scheduled Nov. 9-13 in Nykoping, Sweden.

Harvard teammates Jillian Dempsey of Winthrop, MA, a junior forward, and freshman rearguard Michelle Picard of Taunton, MA, were also named to the squad.

Dempsey will be making her second appearance with the team after debuting at the Twelve Nations Tournament this summer, and the 2011 Four Nations Cup marks Picard’s first stint with the national team.

Katey Stone, the Harvard head coach, will lead Team USA at the Four Nations event. The veteran coach helped the United States to a runner-up finish at the 2010 Four Nations Cup, and led the squad to titles at the 2011 IIHF World Championships and the 2011 Twelve Nations Tournament.

Team USA will hold a training camp in Hamden, CT, Nov. 1-6 before heading to Nykoping for the tournament. Play begins for the U.S. on Nov. 9 at 9:30 a.m. (EST) against Sweden. The red, white and blue goes on to play Canada Nov. 10 and Finland Nov. 12 before participating in either the third-place game or the championship Nov. 13.

Harvard, which has enjoyed a solid preseason, according to Stone, opens its championship season on Oct. 28 at St. Lawrence University in Canton. The host Saints are already well under way, and will take a 3-1 mark into today’s game against New Hampshire at Appleton Arena.

The Crimson are bracing for a tough East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) schedule, but Stone knows she can count on a solid core, including the three national team members.

“Pucci, Dempsey, and Picard—they’re great examples of hard work and dedication,” Stone said in a taped interview. “We’re expecting everyone to step up. Our junior class is great, our sophomores are on board, and we have some tremendous freshmen. We’re going to play loose, go 100 miles per hour, and not be afraid to make a mistake.

“The ECAC is as strong as ever, and we have an extremely challenging schedule, which is what we want. You want to play the best to be the best. There are no days off from here on … we open at St. Lawrence and Clarkson (Oct. 29 in Potsdam), and it (schedule) just rolls from there. We will take every game like it will be the toughest.”

High praise at Rutgers

The Rutgers University football team, which meets Big East rival Louisville in  Kentucky tonight (8 o’clock, ESPN2), chalked up its fifth win of the season last week in scintillating 21-20 style against Navy.

The 5-1 Scarlet Knights, off to their finest start since the 2006 season when Coach Greg Schiano earned numerous Coach of the Year accolades, received two key plays from Pat Kivlehan of West Nyack to spark the victory.

Kivlehan, an alum of St. Joseph’s Regional in Montvale, NJ, who played in all 12 games for Rutgers as a safety last season, made one touchdown-saving tackle at the goal line against Navy. Later, thrust into the game as a linebacker against the Midshipmen’s vaunted triple-option, Kivlehan picked up his first career interception off a deflection at 10:28 of the third quarter with Navy already holding a 17-7 advantage.

Rutgers responded with a seven-play drive, culminating with a TD with three minutes left when freshman QB Gary Nova hit sophomore Quron Pratt from 10 yards out. The extra point pulled the Scarlet Knights within three points at 17-14, and turned the game around.

“Kivvy has played that position (linebacker) over the years in his career, so he has a lot of cumulative reps,” noted Schiano. “He just looked much more comfortable in there as he got in there, so we said let’s let him go.”

Kivlehan, a senior, and a member of the Big East all-academic team, has received intermittent playing time over the years, but his enthusiasm and unselfishness has not gone unrecognized.

“Kivvy’s a senior, not getting a lot of playing time—he’s on special teams, a depth guy in the secondary,” continued Schiano. “But here comes a way that he can step up big, and to make that goofy, weird interception; I can’t even see it, but I heard he’s lying on a guy’s body! You don’t make that play unless you’re swarming to the football. That’s a turning point in the football game. He’s one of those seniors who are so unselfish, give themselves to the program, and now here comes a shot, and wins the game.”

Schiano said this latest Scarlet Knights team is a special group.

“We’re 5-1; that’s one game more—we were 4-1 at this time last year,” he noted. “Now we get Louisville on a short week.”

But Rutgers gets a Cardinal team struggling at 2-4, while the Scarlet Knights are coming off that major victory over Navy.

“That was a buzz-saw we ran into,” Schiano said, referencing Navy. “Those are our nation’s elite, as far as fighting, mission, but at no time did we panic. It wasn’t a highlight-reel game, but it’s a ‘W,’ and a ‘W’ against a team that is very dangerous.”

Red Foxes well-represented

Area athletes are starring at Marist College on the football field, and in women’s cross country.

The Marist football team (2-5)--which meets Butler (4-3) on Saturday at Indianapolis, IN as part of the Bulldogs homecoming--is led defensively by junior 6-foot-4, 270-pound tackle Terrence Fede, a former all-state selection at Nyack High.

Fede leads the Red Foxes with four sacks, and has taken part in 43 tackles, including 14 single-handedly.

In cross country, Jackie Gamboli and Dayna McLaughlin, both of Stony Point, out of North Rockland HS, and Suffern alum Tara Nuccitelli are turning in impressive performances.

The Marist girls placed fifth in the Championship race at the University of Albany Invitational, led by Gamboli, a junior who was clocked in 19:25-flat.

In the Gold race, Marist was runner-up in the team scoring, powered by McLaughlin, a senior who took sixth with a clocking of 20:03.4, and Nuccitelli, a sophomore who placed seventh in 20:08.8

Gamboli and McLaughlin were both named to the MAAC all-academic team last year.

Marist returns to action on Oct. 28 at Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx where the MAAC Championships are to be contested.

McNamara strikes again

Freshman midfielder Ryan McNamara of West Nyack registered his third goal of the season to help the University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team turn back Holy Cross, 2-1, in double overtime at Bremner Field in Durham, NH.

McNamara, a graduate of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ, opened the scoring against Holy Cross in the 17th minute of the first half, assisted by David Schlatter of Marlton, NJ.

New Hampshire (6-7-1), which held a slight edge in shots (14-11) and corner kicks (9-8), hosts the University of Vermont on Saturday at 7 p.m. looking to reach the .500 plateau.

Vermont (7-6) scored a goal with 26 seconds left in regulation to beat Hartford, 2-1, in its last outing.

Daniels developing scoring touch

Suffern native Justin Daniels, a junior forward, scored his third goal of the season as the Northeastern University hockey team upended No. 15-ranked New Hampshire, 4-0, before the home fans at Matthews Arena in Boston.

Daniels scored on a tap-in, giving the Huskies a commanding 3-0 lead that junior goalie Chris Rawlings of North Delta, B.C., preserved for his ninth career shutout, matching the school record.

Northeastern (1-1-1) visits Merrimack tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Lawler Arena in North Andover, MA, and then entertains the top-ranked Boston College Eagles on Saturday night at 7 o’clock.

The Huskies are hoping to reverse a 5-4 loss to Boston College in the Hockey East semifinals last season.

Justin’s scoring touch comes after being held to just six assists last season, one in which his twin brother Drew, who had three goals, also notched six assists. Drew, a junior forward, has yet to score this season.

King for a week, once more

Clarkstown North graduate Meghan King—who was an all-county and all-section selection in 2010, and twice was named to the Super 70 Select team—is starring on the women’s volleyball team at The College of New Rochelle.

For the second time this season the Blue Angels’ outside hitter was recognized as rookie of the week by the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Association (HVWAC), leading her team to three wins—and its fifth straight--with 26 kills, 18 digs, and six service aces.

King, of New City, leads the Blue Angles in kills on the season with 61.

Mortarboard musings

• Junior midfielder Tom McNamara of West Nyack has a goal and two assists for the Brown University men’s soccer team.  The Bears (7-4-1) travel to Ithaca to take on Cornell at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, and then finish their non-league schedule at Holy Cross on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
• The Purchase College women’s soccer team—including junior defender Ashley Panepinto of North Rockland--won three of its last four regular-season games to finish at 7-8-1 overall, 4-6 in the Skyline Conference.
• The East Coast Conference men’s and women’s cross country championships are set for Sunday on the campus of C.W. Post College in Brookville. The women’s team at St. Thomas Aquinas College is expected to contend for team honors in a wide-open competition. “It’s there for the taking, but it won’t be easy,” said Coach Lou Maturo, noting that NYIT has a couple of top runners, along with Molloy, C.W. Post and Dowling.
• Nanuet High graduates Bill Smith, a senior linebacker, and Gabe Ostrow, a sophomore linebacker, have helped the Cortland State Red Dragons post a 4-2 mark in football. Last week in a 56-10 pounding of winless Western Connecticut State (0-6), Smith had one solo tackle, and assisted on five others, while Ostrow also had a hand in five tackles. Cortland State is home on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against William Paterson (2-4).
• Concordia College senior back Michael Barbetto of New City has a goal and an assist for the Clippers’ soccer team, which has a pair of contests set this weekend at SUNY Purchase. Concordia (2-11) meets Felician (7-7) on Saturday at noon, and then challenges Chestnut Hill (5-8-1) on Sunday at 3 p.m.
• Promising freshman Tom Lappas of Pearl River, competing at Marist College, placed 93rd overall in the Championship race at the University of Albany Cross Country Invitational. In the Purple race, sophomore Nick Hughes of Stony Point placed eighth as the Red Foxes finished 11th in the team scoring. Marist has a week layoff before competing in the MAAC Championships on Oct. 28 at Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx. The race is set to start at 2:30 p.m.
• Freshman forward Nicole Genzardi of New City has yet to break into the starting lineup, but has appeared in five games for the University of Rhode Island women’s soccer team. The Rams (5-8-1) are closing their home schedule this weekend at the URI Soccer Complex in Kingston with games tonight at 7 against St. Bonaventure (7-5-3), and on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. against Duquesne (3-10-1).
• Junior Suzana Markolovic of Tappan ran 14th in 19:11-flat as the Cornell University women’s cross country team won the Yellowjacket Invitational in Rochester. The Big Red scored 31 points to edge runners-up Western Ontario, which had 35. Markolovic, who has developed into a steeplechaser, won in her specialty at the Upstate Challenge and the Big Red Invite in the spring season. Cornell is in action today at the Reif Memorial Run in Ithaca.
• Sophomore defenseman Conner Alexander of Blauvelt has played a key role in helping the Northeastern University soccer team hold the opposition to one goal per game. Alexander, whose uncle Kevin Kane was an all-American goalie at the University of North Carolina, has not missed a game for the Huskies, now 8-4-2. Northeastern, coming of a 1-0 victory over Towson, visits George Mason in Fairfax, VA, on Saturday for a game at 7 p.m.